Thursday, July 21, 2005

2 comments:

Aaron Paul
said...

Hey samra:(great picture, by the way)I just wanted you to know that I'll be reading this, and that I wish you the world on your trip. I will miss you terribly: you're one of the few people in my life who really 'gets it' if you know what I mean. Like, we can talk about serious or interesting things, as well as talk about the neccssary frivolity. Just know that I love you and will be thinking of you.

I love the title of your Blog. It definitely will help us see the shadow of your smile. The smile we love so much. The smile that opens your beautiful face like the sun opens a flower. Your words on this Blog will also help us hear the echo of your laughter. I pray you will have plenty of occasions to laugh. Your Blog will help us hear your laughter echoed by the beautiful Simen Mountains of Ethiopia across the land and by the dolphins of the Atlantic across the ocean. Ah! The skeleton of your tears. That is a tough one for me. However, your Blog will also help us see your tears that may not have been shed but are swelling up in your throat; and we will send our words of love to you through this Blog, that hopefully will give you comfort and strength.

Samra, you will miss your family and friends and we will miss you as well. However, you will be spending a year in your home away from home. You will be surrounded by people who love you and will take care of you. You will be surrounded by sights, sounds, smells, ideas and people that will ignite the essence of who you are that is hard coded in your genes. My dream is that when you emerge from this sojourn you will be more complete, and know who you are, where you came from and where you are going.

I am spending my junior year of high school abroad in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Home is on the other side of the world, over deserts and oceans and millions of other people's lives. But despite distance my love is invincible. Nonetheless, we can't see and talk to each other everyday; my blog thus acts as shadows, echoes, and skeletons of my life. The essence of me.